Brunk family

Brunk (Bronk, Bronck) is a Swiss family name found among the Mennonites in the Palatinate about 1700 and among the American Mennonites since the last quarter of the 18th century. About 1773 Jacob Brunk came to America from Europe, settled first in Pennsylvania, and in 1795 in Frederick County, Virginia. His sons Christian, Joseph, and George located in Maryland. Christian's son Christian (1832-1906) was a Mennonite preacher near Winchester, Virginia, and his son George (1831-?) served as a preacher first at Broadway, Virginia, and later at Elida, Ohio. A number of the descendants of George Brunk (born 1831) were ministers and deacons in the Mennonite Church (MC). The most influential members of the Brunk family in the Mennonite Church have been Bishop George R. Brunk (1871-1938) first of Kansas, later Virginia, founder and first editor of The Sword and Trumpet, and author of Ready Scriptural Reasons (Scottdale, 1926); and his sons, Bishop Truman Brunk (1902-1995), who had often served as moderator of the Virginia Mennonite Conference, and George R. Brunk, II (1911-2002), a Mennonite evangelist.

The Brunks have also been prominent in musical circles in the Mennonite Church. Christian H. Brunk (1845-1921) was an active layman and music composer of Rockingham County, Virginia; he served on the committee which compiled the Church and Sunday School Hymnal (1902). He also compiled a Sunday-school hymnbook entitled, Bible School Hymns and Sacred Songs (Elkhart, 1883). John D. Brunk (1872-1926) came from Rockingham County, Virginia, was a composer of music, and served as professor of music in Goshen College. He was the music editor of the Church Hymnal, Mennonite (Scottdale, 1927), the best hymnbook of his body of Mennonites to that time.